High Winds Advisory for Southland

With the National Weather Service calling for sunny skies and a high of 68 in Long Beach this afternoon, Belmont Shore residents should be prepared to pull out their polarized shades.

Just be careful those shades are not blown right off your faces.

Santa Ana winds packing enough punch to knock down trees and power lines will once again batter the Southland today. Those winds are expected to abate early in the afternoon amid bright sunshine and mild pre-Christmas temperatures.

On Thursday, gusts were in recorded in the 70-mile-per-hour-range, with the strongest winds expected in mountain areas, according to the NWS.

A high wind warning will be in effect until noon in the mountains -- both the San Gabriel and Santa Monica ranges -- where sustained northeast winds of between 25 and 45 mph gusting at 65 mph are expected, according to NWS forecasters, who said isolated 80-mph gusts are possible.

"Winds may knock down trees and power lines and cause unsecured objects to be blown around,'' according to an NWS advisory.

A wind advisory, signifying that 35-mph winds are expected, will be in effect until 3 p.m. in the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and the L.A. County Coast, which includes Malibu and other coastal communities, downtown and other metropolitan Los Angeles areas, and the Hollywood Hills.

The areas subject to the wind advisory generally will experience winds of between 20 and 30 mpg, gusting to 45 mph -- possibly 50 mph in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to the NWS.

About 1,440 Southern California Edison customers lost power Thursday, some 480 of them in Garden Grove, as a result of the winds.

The weather will be sunny and mild over the coming days, including Christmas Day, according to forecasters.

For Long Beach, the NWS forecast highs of 70 on Saturday and 73 on Christmas day. 

--with reports from City News Service